Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Slow Gin

(Warning – this post is not about cake!)

I am late for everything. It's not that I don't
try. I try really hard. Honest! It's worse when I have loads of time because
then I think 'oh, I have loads of time' and then I start faffing about, the
time disappears, and I'm late. It's at the point now that people just expect me
to be late: last one ready, last one there, birthday cards/presents 2 days
late... That doesn't stop the guilt I feel when I am late, because I do feel
bad, but it also doesn't give me any incentive to change my ways.

Plus, I have scientific proof that it is imbedded
in my genes.

But now it seems that this lateness has drifted
into making my sloe gin breaking all the rules of an age old tradition! :/

Sloe berries come from the Blackthorn Tree. What
is interesting about the Blackthorn tree is that it is surrounded in mystery and
is depicted in folklore as a tree of ill omen. *Geek alert* A branch of the
blackthorn tree is also used in a Snatcher’s wand in Harry Potter. Harry does
not enjoy it so much when he is forced to use said wand. Strangely, this
endears me to the tree and makes me feel like I’ve made some special potion and
not just a (hopefully) delicious alcoholic beverage. Let’s ignore that it is
also associated with death… Grim.)

The berries produced on the Blackthorn are round and
a beautiful deep blue but they are horribly bitter to eat. Even the birds have
to be desperate to eat them. They are, however, excellent for making gin.

I’ve tried very hard to find out how sloe gin
actually came into being but only seem to be able to find the same very elusive
answer: the people of Britain have been making sloe gin for hundreds of years.
But whatever the reason, sloe gin has been a wintery/Christmassy tradition for
a long time, and I managed to get behind on the traditional processes.

The usual time to gather your sloes is the end of
October/beginning of November, and normally when the sloes have experienced
their first frost. Because sloes have been so sparse this year and we were
worried about the longevity of the ones we did find*, I collected mine at the
beginning of October and popped them in the freezer to simulate the ‘frost’ part.

(*I have become one of those people who keep their
source of sloes a closely guarded secret, even more so because they have been in
such short supply this year. Sorry!)

This is where I got behind.

For some reason, my sloes got left in the freezer
until late November. The tradition of sloe gin is that they are collected and
put into the gin so that enough time has passed for the flavours to infuse and
to be ready to drink at Christmas. Mine won’t be ready.

I was so excited about giving my homemade gin as
Christmas presents but that is definitely not going to happen this year.
Although I have read that the gin tastes better 1 -3 years after the berries
have been removed and the drink has had time to mature so I am going to pretend
that this was my plan all along.

Anyway here is my ever so simple, and ever so
late, recipe for sloe gin, which, if you managed to find any sloes, should have
been started months ago.

Recipe:

1 litre gin

1lb sloe berries

500g caster sugar

You will also need a couple of bottles or a large
container to keep the gin in. The vessel also needs a lid so you can shake the
mixture. A person with common sense probably doesn’t need to be told that the
litre of gin and the berry/sugar mixture won’t fit in the litre bottle the gin
comes in, but I made that mistake and thought I’d highlight that you’ll need a
vessel of bigger volume!

Method:

-Weigh out the sloes and prick each one to break the
skin. (Folklore says this should

be done with something silver!)

-Pop them into your vessel

-Weigh out the sugar and pour it into the vessel with
the sloes

-Pour in your gin

-Give the vessel a quick shake and tip to make sure
everything is getting mixed

together

-For the first couple of weeks the mixture will need to
be shaken every other day,

after that it just needs a bit of a tip about once a
week or so.

-Leave the sloes in the gin for about 2-3 months

-After this time, strain the sloe gin through a very
fine sieve or muslin into a